Manhattan Short Film Festival 2020
Run Time: 136 min. Release Year: 2020
Gateway Film Center is proud to once again be the exclusive Columbus host for Manhattan Short Film Festival.
About the festival:
Established in New York City in 1998, the Manhattan Short receives over 600 short film entries from over 45 countries each year. This Festival is not just one of the largest short film festivals in the world, it is the world’s first global film festival.
Awards for Best Film and Best Actor are determined by ballots cast by the audiences in each participating venue. There are no virtual screenings. All films screened in this series are Academy Award eligible.
About the filmmakers:
The directorial voices are both male and female from countries large and small, often inspired by personal, and sometimes harrowing, experience. This year’s Final Nine screening is also a rare instance when gripping dramas from Iran, Israel, and the State of Palestine are featured in the same program.
About this year’s program:
Safe Space
Director: Jake Robb
Country: Australia
Runtime: 5:35 min.
Synopsis: Two detectives craft an intricate interrogation technique to intimidate an apparent witness to police corruption.
The Stick
Director: Teppo Airaksinen
Country: Finland
Runtime: 11 min.
Synopsis: Aava has but one wish: to get a dog. Meanwhile, her parent’s marriage is falling apart.
Exam
Director: Sonia K. Hadad
Country: Iran
Runtime: 15 min.
Synopsis: A teenage girl gets involved in the process of delivering a pack of cocaine to its client, and gets stuck in a weird cycle of occurrences.
Hey, Gray
Director: Nikita Khozyainov
Country: Russia
Runtime: 13:50 min.
Synopsis: At death’s door, a thriving businessman meets his old dog Grey, which he heartlessly threw out on the street many years ago.
White Eye
Writer/Director: Tomer Shushan
Country: Israel
Runtime: 20 min.
Synopsis: A man finds his stolen bicycle, but now it belongs to a stranger. How much of himself will he lose to get it back?
Sticker
Writer/Director: Georgi M Unkovski
Country: North Macedonia
Runtime: 18:45 min.
Synopsis: After an unsuccessful attempt to renew his automobile registration, Dejan falls into a bureaucratic trap that tests his determination to be a responsible father.
Two Little Boys
Writer/Director: Farbod Khoshtinat
Country: USA
Runtime: 13:12 min.
Synopsis: A boy’s secret love for his closeted bully drives him into an unconventional road to confession and its consequences.
Maestro
Animators: Florian Babikian, Victor Caire
Country: France
Runtime: 1:40 min.
Synopsis: A stick-wielding squirrel conducts a nocturnal chorus of opera-loving forest creatures.
The Present
Director: Farah Nabulsi
Country: Palestine
Runtime: 24 min.
Synopsis: On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy can it be to go shopping?